In This Issue

To help celebrate the J-School’s 10th anniversary, we’re publishing our first digital alumni newsletter. Creating it was a pleasure. This past year — my first as Alumni Services Director — I’ve gotten to know graduates from the 10 classes that make up our diverse J -School community. You’re an impressive group; I feel as if I’ve joined a talented and committed extended family. I hope this newsletter will be one way for you to stay connected to one another and to the J-School’s faculty and staff. Look for our next issue this summer. And If you haven’t done so already, join our Facebook alumni group.

Thanks to Dean Sarah Bartlett, Associate Dean Andy Mendelson, Development’s Cathy Harding and Gogie Padilla, and Career Services’ Andrea Stone and Yolanda Rodriguez — all of whom contributed to this inaugural digital issue. Special thanks to two alumnae: Bianca Flowers, ’14, who did the reporting and writing; and Rosaleen Ortiz, ‘08, who helped with design. Finally, our gratitude to all the alums who responded to our pleas for work-and-life news updates.

Stay in touch,

Brooke Stachyra
Brooke.Stachyra@journalism.cuny.eduSAVE THE DATE: Our 10th Anniversary Alumni Homecoming is on May 13th. Look for the Evite soon.

Class of 2016

Photo by Skyler Reid, ’13

In the three months since commencement, the 79 graduates of the Class of 2016 have been mapping out careers across the country and the globe. A sampling of the full-time jobs, freelance posts, fellowships and internships they’ve landed so far:

Upcoming Events

Welcome home!

CUNY J’s 10th Anniversary Alumni Homecoming will take place on Saturday, May 13th at the J-School.

Evites coming your way.

Join us for the 10th Annual Awards for Excellence in Journalism on Thursday, April 13, 2017, at Cipriani 25 Broadway, honoring New York Times publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr. and U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer.

The Office of Admissions is hosting its annual Admitted-Student Open House on Sunday, April 9, and urges alumni to attend.
Contact the Office of Admissions if you can come to any of the sessions or the reception. (admissions@journalism.cuny.edu; type “Alum RSVP to Open House” in the subject line)
The schedule will be posted online soon.

Please share on social media using the hashtag #CUNYJ18.

Where's the Line? (Or Should There Be One?) Journalists and Objectivity in the Age of Trump

The election of Donald Trump has rekindled debate about the journalist’s place in U.S. society: Are journalists observers who must remain neutral? Should they be able to protest like other citizens? And how do they respond to a president who has called the press “the enemy of the people”? Join us on April 4, 2017, when a panel of journalists will wrestle with these and related questions.

Moderator: Carrie Brown, Director, CUNY Graduate School of Journalism Social Journalism Program

Alumni Updates

On the move…over (Roughly) the Past Year

Simone Sebastian, ’10, was promoted to Deputy Editor of The Washington Post’s America team, where she helps lead national coverage — both breaking news and enterprise stories. Previously, she was an assignment editor on the Post’s financial desk. Photo by Brett Coomer, Houston Chronicle

Uche Abanobi, ’10, joined MSNBC as an Associate Producer for the network’s Weekend Breaking News Unit.

Anika Anand ’12, launched her startup, The Evergrey, a daily newsletter that covers events and news in the Seattle area.

Kentaro Aragaki, ’15, is working atthe Olympic Channel as a freelance reporter/videographer.

Following a stint as an intern, Kaara Baptiste, ’14, became an Assistant Copy Editor at Newsday.

Rebecca Bratek, ’14, is now a Social Media Producer at CBS News.

Laura Bult, ’14, went to Zero Point Zero Production, where she reports for a documentary series on food crimes. Netflix has picked up the show.

After joining Bloomerang Solutions as a web strategist in late 2015, Chris Dell, ’13, was promoted to Digital Director at the Florida-based marketing agency.

Luis Miguel Echegaray,’15, joined Honeyguide Media as its Engagement Editor, responsible for building the startup’s online presence on all digital platforms.

Tatiana Flowers, ’16, landed a video internship at Slate in February.

Nick Forrester, ’14, is a web producer for the NHL, turning out videos and stories for some of the league’s international sites.

Jessica Glazer, ’13, a Multimedia Producer for NBC, is working on an investigative project involving all 12 NBC-owned stations.

Amy Goldstein, ’09, was promoted to Senior Editor at ESPN.com and ESPN Magazine.

Anna Halkidis, ’12, is now at Long Island Pulse Magazine, where she is a Web Editor.

In January, Erica Hochstedler, ’13, became the Editorial Content Manager for Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater.

Career Services

Giving @ the J-School

CUNY Graduate School of Journalism
Innovative | Affordable | Diverse

Since we opened our doors 10 years ago, we’ve provided scholarship support to an average of two-thirds of our students every year. (Maybe one of them was you!) You can help us preserve the opportunities the J-School creates by donating $10 or more to the Future Journalists Fund.

Recent Honors

Tanzina Vega, ’07, made the list of prominent young Puerto Rican journalists featured in an article published by Hunter College’s Center of Puerto Rican Studies. Vega is a national reporter at CNNMoney, where she covers race and inequality in America. Photo by CNN

The Overseas Press Club Foundation awarded Donna Airoldi, ’16, a fellowship at Reuters.

Tow-Knight Entrepreneurial Fellows Saalim Chowdhury,’12, and Stephen Robert Morse sold their business platform, Skillbridge, to Toptal, a network of top freelance software developers and designers. Skillbridge, which the two founded in 2013, connects top-tier business consultants with jobs. It will now become Toptal Business.

Melissa Noel, ’12, was one of the winners of the International Labour Organization’s (ILO) Global Media Competition: “Breaking Stereotypes on Labour Migration.” Her piece, Migration and Separation: Stories of “Barrel Children,” for Voices of NY, was cited for excellence in reporting in the Video/Multimedia category.

María Sánchez Díez,‘15, was among 25 journalists chosen by the Online News Association for the group’s 2017 Women’s Leadership Accelerator. She is part of the Univision News Innovation team in Miami.

Karen Shakerdge, ’15, a Reporter/Producer at WWXI in Rochester, NY, waschosen, along with two of her colleagues, for NPR’s Second Story Lab Workshop, which was held in early March. Her team’s project: producing first-person stories of people with disabilities navigating the road from childhood to adulthood.

Class of 2015’s Joe Swide (left), and Jessica Bal (middle) at “Photoville” 2016 in Brooklyn, NY. Both contributed photo essays to the annual festival, which exhibits premiere work by visual artists from around the world.

J-School Babies

Roxanna (Asgarian) DeBenedetto (’11) and Paul DeBenedetto (’11)received a special delivery from Santa (sorry, we couldn’t resist)— son Rocco, born on Christmas Day.

Scotti Williston, who retired in September from her post as Senior Producer in Residence at the J-School (see photo), was honored by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences at the New York Chapter Gold & Silver Circle Ceremony on Dec. 1, 2016. Williston was inducted into the group’s Silver Circle, which celebrates outstanding industry professionals with 25 or more years of experience.

Jeremy Caplan, Director of Education for the Tow Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism, won the 2016 “Teaching News Terrifically in the 21st Century” award for the Newspaper and Online News Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC).

Director of News Products and Projects Jere Hester and Director of Interactive Journalism Sandeep Junnarkar won a $20,000 grant from Verizon and NYC Media Lab for their prototype idea, “You Are Here,” a mobile-based immersive journalism experience that uses photo-rich augmented reality to tell New York stories. They plan to reveal the completed prototype in late April.

Sandeep Junnarkar appeared on NY1 on Jan. 10, 2017, to discuss the Hate Index (www.hateindex.com) the J-School’s effort to chronicle post-election hate crimes and incidents of intolerance. Jere Hester presented the index at the Associated Collegiate Press Gathering in San Francisco in March. Junnarkar and Hester have also promoted the project in interviews with WNYC, BuzzFeed and Fox 5 NY.

Director of Admissions Colleen Marshall married David Leigh on July 2, 2016. Her new email address: colleen.leigh@journalism.cuny.edu. Photo by VisualMasters Studio

At the U.S. Military Academy (West Point) in April 2016, Associate Professor Wayne Svoboda chaired a panel on “Experiences in Journalism and Politics,” served on a panel on “Evolution in Military Thought and Popular Portrayals” and observed cadets as they trained in the nearby Camp Buckner woodland. In May 2016, Svoboda, who teaches Conflict Reporting (as well as Craft), spent five days watching Marine recruits learn fundamental skills at Parris Island, SC. In June, 2016, he took part in a weeklong National Security Seminar at the U.S. Army War College in Carlisle, PA.

Welcome Back, Marisa Osorio – Formerly the Director of Alumni Services, Osorio left the J-School in August 2015 for a position at the University of Maryland Phillip Merrill College of Journalism. She returned to the J-School in August 2016 to serve as Assistant Director of Admissions. Osorio says she is “ thrilled to be back and working with the phenomenal Colleen Leigh, Max Patiño, Steve Dougherty and Lili Grossman.”

Now available from CUNY Journalism Press: American English for World Media, by Diane Nottle. Take the J-school’s English-language coaching home with you! A must-have reference book for international alumni — or for anyone working in the media.

CUNY J+ Workshops

Use code ALUM50 to get 50% off our digital skills workshops. The workshops are designed to help communicators and working journalists — including freelancers and photographers — sharpen their skills in social media editing, data visualization, video storytelling for the web and more.

We Want to Publicize Your Work

Alumni interested in promoting or highlighting their work are strongly encouraged to pitch their stories to Social Media Marketing Manager Ellen Lai, who presides over the J-School's social media accounts.